Clark grew up at Miramar Beach in Half Moon Bay and could see the big waves off Pillar Point from Half Moon Bay High School. In 1975 he paddled out alone to face the break, with waves of 20 to 24 feet, and became the first documented person to ride Mavericks head-on.
He surfed it alone for roughly the next 15 years. After a photo of Mavericks by his friend Steve Tadin ran in Surfer magazine in 1990, the big-wave world arrived. Clark helped create the Mavericks Water Patrol after Mark Foo died there in 1994, and he founded the annual Mavericks contest with Quiksilver in 1998.
He is the only surfer in the San Mateo County Sports Hall of Fame. In 2015 he marked 40 years of surfing Mavericks.
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